“It’s a very rare instance,” said Llyn McCoy, the board’s deputy director, who said the flap was inadvertent. “I’ve been working here since 1993; this is the first contest of an election we’ve had in Greene County.”
PAST REPORT: Close margin on Beavercreek Twp. additional levy
The issue was discovered when Beavercreek Twp. leadership combed through the results precinct by precinct following original certification of the results. Township officials brought the matter to McCoy’s office.
“We started taking a look at the voters who were actually voting on the issue,” McCoy said. “Because annexation lines have changed in the past several years, unfortunately there were some voters who were in the incorporated area of the township that voted on an unincorporated issue.”
Impacted Greene County precincts included precincts 214, 224 and 226 in Fairborn and 90-2 in Kettering. Each of these precincts is within the boundaries of Beavercreek Twp. but receive service by each city’s respective police force. The township does not have a police department and instead utilizes a contract with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office for the use of four deputies who patrol the unincorporated parts of the township.
Township officials were then appraised on the only way to correct the issue: File a lawsuit against the board.
“Beavercreek Twp. worked with the Greene County BOE, and everyone agreed the precincts shouldn’t be counted,” said Township Administrator Alex Zaharieff. “However, under state law the only thing we could do is go to court and have the court order a recount.”
“I think it was just an inadvertent error,” Zaharieff said. “I don’t think it was malicious in any way.”
Township Trustees Tom Kretz and Jeff Roberts joined the township in the lawsuit filed in Greene County Common Pleas Court against the board of elections. Last week, Judge Stephen Wolaver ordered the board of elections to report the new results to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and place the levy on the county tax list.
The first collection will be this year, according to the order. The new additional levy, which impacts residents in unincorporated areas of the township, will cost homeowners $31.50 per $100,000 appraised estimated value, according to the Greene County Auditor’s Office, and annually generate an estimated $238,000.
Until now, the township has used three continuing levies — of 1, 0.9 and 3 mills — to fund police services. The last time the township asked voters to approve a police levy was 38 years ago in 1978, according to the township.
Over a five-year period starting in 2011, the township police fund revenues have dropped 2 percent from $397,966 to $314,042 while expenditures have grown 33 percent from $270,908 to $360,143, according to township records.
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Staff Writer Sharahn D. Boykin and Staff Photographer Chuck Hamlin contributed reporting.
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